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PSN:the_dr_slump / GTP_dr_slump

I see people searching for help all the time and I get tons of questions/requests every day. Now, it isn't easy to help everyone individually, so I decided to post a bit of the "Basic Knowledge" here on GTP. I really hope that you'll like it and that it will help you.

I'll start with some theory about tuning the suspension, but don't worry! The rest, like LSD, Transmission, Downforce, etc., will follow! At the moment I'm trying to fix all points which got influenced/changed by the new 2.08 update...

It would be fantastic if you could give me some feedback here, it's appreciated. Doesn't matter if you just want to say "thank you" or if you have some criticism. As long as you keep it civil, of course!
Enjoy!

_________________

Drag Distances
​

1/4mile (+400m)
Probably the most popular variant, with tons of lobbies open all the time and plenty of drag tuners. It must be said that Indy is much more popular for online drag racing than SSRX, although the most tune their cars offline on SSRX.
Seems to be the no. 1 choice for most americans and canadians, but you'll also see some latinos, aussies and spanish (just my experience).

TUNING: For the 1/4mile you want as much traction and low range acceleration as possible, topspeed doesn't really matter.
It's basically the same for Indy, just a bit more extreme (Indy is only about 370m long)

1000m
Definitely not popular, lobbies are, if you'll ever find one, most time hosted by europeans or asians (again just my experience).

TUNING: Basically like a stretched 1/4mile run, the tunes look often quite similar.

1mile
A very few people like to run it in the offline speed mode, but obviously not online. At least I've never seen a 1mile drag room.

TUNING: Distance is a bit too big to use a slightly modified 1/4mile tune, which would work for 1000m. Here you'd need something between a 1000m and 3000m tune. The focus is on mid range, launch is still very important though.

3000m
My favourite choice! It's behind 1/4mile the second most popular distance for dragracing. You'll meet people from all over the world.

TUNING: For this long distance you want the best compromise of launch, accel and topspeed, with a relatively big focus on high range performance.
If you still tune for tunnel: It's basically the same for tunnel (SSR7), but with a very few exceptions, which will be explained in this guide. But be aware that the most good tuners changed to SSRX.

10'000m (Topspeed runs)
Sorry guys, but this is another story!
Although I could tell you some things about it, I'm not planning to do this in this guide. You might be interested in the "Aerodynamics" part though.

High front: Better topspeed, but the amount is dependent on the downforce level. The more downforce a car has, the bigger will be the difference.
Low front: Often a slightly increased traction, but worse top end.​

Rear

High rear: Much more traction.
Low rear: Less traction, but better topspeed.​

You'll notice that the rear height is more crucial and has a much bigger effect than the front height.

Usual Ride Height for specific car layouts:

RWD

Max. traction: Front height depending on car, theoretically at lowest, but even for 1/4mile often somewhere in the middle; rear max.
Low rear is only needed for high downforce cars and if you tune for longer distances (e.g 3k)​

[*]FWD

Pretty much always front at lowest and the rear all the way up. This is valid for all distances, except maybe 10k (with certain cars) or cars with massive downforce.​

[*]AWD

Front low and rear up is mostly the way to go, when max. grip is your main goal (mainly for 1/4).
But sometimes, namely for long distances, a car is just (or at least close to be) slammed to the ground, which can have some positive effects (slightly longer first possible, smaller tendency to bog, less shiftlag, better top, etc.). "Surprisingly" (not really though), it is often beneficial to have the front slightly higher than the rear if you tune for 3k. ​

NOTE: This above is correct for quite all non and low downforce cars. Because downforce has such a big effect on ride height, read the "Aerodynamics" part and/or the following addition for 3000m drag (green).

Same (black) for 3000m + remember: The higher the front and the lower the rear, the better the topspeed. Especially the case with high downforce cars (Dodge Viper ACR as example).

=>

max. Grip: min / max​

max. Speed: max / min​

IMPORTANT: The rear ride height is more crucial than the front height.

Method:
You normally start with the max grip one (relatively low front, high rear). Now, if you want to improve topspeed, you first change the front value, because it's less important for the grip level than the rear number. Only when front is already at the maximum, you begin to lower the rear.

Rear too low is usually a bad idea, but it depends on the car. It can really hurt the launch. BUT there's one special exception:

"Aero Tunes"
You might have already heard it, probably in combination with talking about cars with wing.
The ride height part looks like this then: max/min. You see, it's an extreme case of what I described before when I was talking about cars with some downforce. The only difference here is that you actually want as much downforce as possible and that you try to profit from it trough a special ride height (and spring rate ..) setting.

Anyway, read the "Aerodynamics" part of this guide!!!

Spring Rates

Like I said, topspeed doesn't really matter. That's why you could use very soft front springs to have the front even lower (for cars which need a very low front).NO! The height will always be the same, doesn't matter if you use stiff or weak springs! This is just a myth.
But a soft spring lets the suspension move more and that can cause a massive, dynamic and unexpected ride height change.

An important thing is that springs can have a big effect on weight distribution and ride height while driving. If you have very stiff front springs, then they won't be as compressed as softer springs by the same car weight.
So when you launch with a RWD car, the front won't lift as much as with soft springs, cause they will already be fully extended after much less way.

Explanation of the compression level:

max. travel of a FC-suspension strut: 10cm (just an example);

Stiff Springidle = 80% (=> by 20% compressed)

Soft Springidle = 30% (=> by 70% compressed)

=> Remaining wheel travel:

Stiff Spring: 20% * 10cm = 0.2 * 10cm = 2cm

Soft Spring: 70% * 10cm = 0.7 * 10cm = 7cm

​

You can see that the front with soft springs could lift by 5cm more. This has a direct effect on the ride height, as follows the traction.
It's the same with the rear springs, just with negative numbers.
It looks as if weight transfer is good, but by far not good enough to compensate a low rear. (--> Weight Distribution; )
The effect on ride height will, depending on the car, not allow a soft front. It's really a matter of your car choice.​

Stiff or weak, depends on the car. There are some rules, like some high downforce cars seem to need soft springs, non downforce cars mostly stiffer ones, cars with a lack of traction and high power this, bogmonsters that, test it!
But to give you an idea:

RWD max/min; FWD soft/max; AWD max/max​

These are the most common settings, but you'll never be successful if you don't experiment with them. It's also worth mentioning that some cars need extremely strange rates, which sometimes even results in the exact opposite of what I listed above.

It's worth mentioning that the spring rates of RWD cars differ way more than of cars with other drive train layouts. As you might already expect after reading the previous part, opposite spring rates could be quite handy for 1/4mile tuning.
With some cars, but definitely not all, soft/stiff is indeed the best for a good launch, although you'll often lose a bit at the end. But this effect isn't as crucial for 1/4mile as it is for longer distances.

Rear - using opposite spring rates
The logic behind a stiff rear spring rate is possibly the positive effect on the ride height. It'll keep your rear high, which is a good thing for maximising traction.

Front - using opposite spring rates
Now this seems to be confusing at first, cause the front will raise more than with stiff springs. But you must consider that there's also a positive effect as result of it - weight transfer. Now, it may be a good idea too quickly hop to the weight transfer part of this guide.

Weight transfer would be actually a good thing if it just wouldn't hurt ride height, because, as I mentioned in the weight transfer chapter, in GT5 ride height is the most important thing suspension-wise. But if you're going to use superstiff rear springs anyway, this could limit the height change well enough so that the positive weight tranfer effect outweighs the negative effect of it.
Beside of this as a nice side effect it even lowers the car's ability to bog and let's you therefore set a better gear ratio.

Be also aware that due to the soft springs the damper setting could gain importancy, but simply read the damper part of this guide for this.

Basically the same.
But especially cars with a wing profit from a certain method:

The front is very stiff, the rear very soft. The car has front downforce 10 and rear downforce 20 (Viper ACR). How can you improve topspeed without changing ride height?

Answer:
The weight causes "downforce", but is a constant. The aerodynamic (wings) produce downforce too, but increasingly the faster you go.

​

If you set the springs like given (stiff front, soft rear), the rear will be a bit lower when accelerating in first gear, but doesn't worsen the launch too bad.
Now what happens at high speeds?
=> The total downforce will get bigger and bigger and with it the difference between the compression status of the front and rear.

So why that?

Answer:
The front springs are still strong enough to hold the weight and big downforce up, but the rear, with the weaker springs, can't.
​

Advantage: High rear at the start for good launch, low rear at highspeed for good top end.

NOTE: This above works well with cars like the ACR with a close front and rear downforce number.

BUT if a car has a massive amount of rear downforce, the downforce, which pushes the car down (in most cases) behind the rear axle, could let the front lift.
If this is the case, you could use soft front springs to allow an even bigger lift of the front, for even better topspeed. But this usually only appears in "aero tunes" and as said before: Read the "Aerodynamics" part of this guide.

---
Now, you should know this doesn't work for every car, let's say for the most non downforce cars (not).

Dampers

Dampers is not that easy.
A good damper setting is always dependent on Spring rate, ride height, weight and grip of your car. Especially the spring rate is a big factor for finding a good number for the shocks.
It may be a good idea to counter supersoft springs with high damper values, to decrease certain negative effects on ride height, weight transfer and gearing.

Very common is the mind that they should be set for max weight transfer.
Might be true IRL and for other GT parts, but in GT5 it doesn't really seem to work. At least you mostly can't really see a difference and sometimes it's even worse.

---
The higher the number of a damper, the harder and therefore the slower reacting it becomes. That's pretty much all what needs to be said.
But like you might already see, the main goal of dampers is to regulate the speed and time the center of mass of your car moves or stays (at least slow enough).
Extreme numbers, especially for rear compression could make traction and/or topspeed noticeable worse (just slightly), when it avoids that the suspension works correctly with making it too slow/hard; this problem doesn't really appear on SSRX though.
Compression makes usually a bigger difference than extension, but I don't want to call it unimportant! You need to set both in a correct way.

Hmm, the same. Maybe you could use it to support the spring-topspeed thing with it, but yeah......... try it.(--> Suspension; Spring Rates)

Dampers set for "max weight transfer" is a very common but rarely a working way. At least it usually doesn't seem to make things worse. But why is max. weight transfer in opening and closing quotation marks?
Well, doesn't matter how you set it, dampers will never change, increase nor decrease the car's potential of shifting weight through a movement forced by the driven wheels. It only determines how fast and therefore, in relation with time, how much of the potential is implemented or not, graded in two areas: extension and compression phase. Simple, isn't it? If not, check the analysis part. (--> Analysis; )

Note: Sometimes dampers don't even make 0.001sec difference . lol
If they do, then usually only in combination with very soft springs.

Bars

Bars don't really influence the traction level, but be careful if you tune for SSR7, Sarthe or any other bumpy track or drag strip which isn't 100% straight (e.g SSR7)! If this is the case keep the following in mind:

Cars with stiff bars move less, hold the line better and as a result the car will be more efficient, at least it should. And like the dampers, before you'd notice a difference in traction, it would first appear in form of a worse topspeed, but even that is unusual, except if you're tuning for a bumpy track like circuit de la sarthe. It never happens on SSRX or Indy!​

Too strong bars could theoretically decrease traction, which also depends on how high your spring and damper values are. But as you probably can imagine, the tarmac of Indy and SSRX is simply too even.

And just to let you know, bars an't really the deciding factor between a good or a bad tune

Toe

Toe........is mainly a 1/4mile and Indy thing, but not less important for longer distances. Toe increases or decreases traction and acceleration, but always reduces topspeed slightly. It is a huge difference if you set toe for the driven wheels or for the non driven ones.

-1.00 / (+)0.60 - (+)1.00 is usual for the majority of the fast and most used RWD cars.​

FWD

±sth / -1.00 Happy wobbling! lol​

AWD

Simple! 0.00 / 0.00​

True for 3000m, but toe makes you slow at the end! Topspeed is important for 3k drag, toe decreases it, so we don't really like it, although a very small number may work. Don't be confused, we need toe and we use it. This has nothing to do with like or dislike.

I personally wouldn't set it too high, it often ends in the range of &#9134;xmin&#9134; - &#9134;xmax&#9134; = 0.20 - 0.50. Some/Certain cars may need lower numbers though.
The trick is to find the best compromise between launch and topspeed. Out of a certain reason, positive toe seems to hurt top-end slightly more than negative toe does.

The initial value shows us how much preload the differential has. That means by what amount it's already, at minimum locked.

The 1/4mile on Indy and SSRX distances are only straights. So theoretically the best is to have a fully locked diff. But because we can't have it fully locked in GT5, we could at least try to get as close as possible. ==> 60
Get's interesting if you tune for SSR7, Sarthe and co, but yeah...

I've seen lots of disagreement about it, some people simply swear that 5, 30, 40, 50 or whatever is better, even if they can't really back it up. It's apparently not more than a conjecture.
So that what I wrote above is just theoretically the best. Practice is your job!

Acceleration

Same as Initial, with the exception that here's no argue running. In pretty much all cases set to 60 or at least close to it.

Deceleration

The reverse: Same as Initial, with the exception that we don't really have anything tangible.
If 5, 20, 60 or similar, no tuner can really say what's noticeable better. We just have our theories and hope it works.

First of all, every aerodynamic part you add to your car logically increases the wind resistance.
Bigger wind resistance means lower topspeed, increasingly the faster you go (progressive). And you don't really want that when trying to drive as fast as possible.

But like you might already see, topspeed isn't that important for 1/4mile drag.

However, is there any advantage of having a wing, diffusor, or similar?
Yes! Aerodynamic parts don't just increase wind resistance, they also add downforce, like you might already know. The more downforce, the more grip do the tires have.
If you don't understand that, then you could try this:

You need a rubber and an even, flat surface. A table would be good.

Place the rubber on the table and try to push it. Easy, isn't it?

Now add some downforce to the rubber, as example trough placing a stone on it, or simply with pressing it down.

You'll see that it needs much more power to move it now. It's the same with a tire.

​

Ok, this is nice and logic, but a wing normally doesn't produce downforce when the car stays still and not that much at very low speeds. Well, that's right, at least when we're talking about the reality, but probably not in GT5. It looks as if it's a bit wrong, as if it gives us a bit too much downforce at very low speeds.

- So does this all mean that aero parts are always beneficial for 1/4mile tuning?
No, it depends on the car. Extremely high powered cars usually profit from it, but I wouldn't say it's a good idea to add a wing to a Fiat 500.
It's really all about testing, after a certain time you'll know when it's beneficial to have aero parts and when not.

- So does this all mean that a aero parts are never beneficial for 3000m tuning?
Again, no! It depends on the car. But it's definitely not as common as on the quarter mile. In general, don't use it! There are only a few cars, which can really profit from a rear wing in form of a little midrange boost or most time through a higher topspeed. Yes, that's right, some cars have a higher trap speed with wing than without. Just don't forget to adjust your tune for it. We call this an "Aero Tune" then, as I explained earlier in the "SUSPENSION" part (especially under Ride Height).

Tunnel: The boost on SSR7 is something not many people know about. It can only be caused through rear downforce. In the most cases, it appears in 5th gear, at speeds between 210mph/340kph and 230mph/kph, and stays for the next 15-20mph/25-30kph. It's as if the physics changes from a 'low speed; high downforce; good for circuit racing' physics, to a variant for topspeed runs. It's really strange. And it's apparently an exclusive thing for only a handful standard cars.​

The reason for the increased topspeed, which some cars will have with aero, is already explained in the Suspension part. (--> Suspension; Spring Rates, but also Ride Height)
Suspension is the most important factor then, usually set with high front and lower rear. Have a look a the list below.
---

Differences between the Special Stage Routes: The second half of the SSR7 tunnel is always uphill, direction doesn't matter. The GT5 physics doesn't seem to like the combination of uphill and aero trick, therefore this wing-story is mainly a 3000m Route X thing.

Short:

More traction at every speed

Higher wind resistance

Possibility of a higher topspeed with usage of the aero trick (only 3k-10k)

Many people hate "aero tunes" (only 3k) lol

Works best on Route X and Indy

You never want downforce on non driven axles

Parts

- Front wing: Maybe for FWD, hardly AWD cars; Not really.
- Extension: Adds sometimes front DF, so it could be good for FWD cars too; Again, not really.
- Diffusor: If it really helps/makes a difference .; You don't need it so far.
- Rear wing: Yes, if downforce helps. You need it quite often.; If you want to create an "Aero tune", then yes. For SSR7: Rarely .really.

---Notice: Some cars have downforce even without aftermarket wing! + for 3000m: Check the SPRING RATES DF and RIDE HEIGHT DF part.

Weight transfer is the change in center of mass location relative to the wheels. The car's potential of shifting weight through a movement forced by the driven wheels.

Effects on grip

Well, it's not that difficult to understand. You simply want as much of the cars weight on the driven wheels, because weight also "causes" downforce, which increases grip (as explained in the AERODYNAMICS part). But you rarely want to add weight (some exceptions when tuning RWD cars with a lack of traction and especially FWD cars). Don't understand it wrong, you usually only want to place the existing weight as good as possible. The big exception are definitely the FWD cars and others with a extremely unbalanced weight distribution and awful traction.

For RWD cars you want the distribution rear biased, for FWD cars front biased, but it's not that easy with AWD cars.
If you want max. grip with an AWD car, you need exactly the same load on all four tires while moving (in first gear). Due to the circumstance that the acceleration and especially movement of the car isn't constant, is the art to find the average point with which you get the best compromise.

More weight => more downforce = more grip / worse acceleration​

The funny thing is, that this above is true in reality, but hardly usable in GT5.

Wheelies

A wheelie is actually torque wasted lifting the front end, rather than moving the vehicle forward.
First this sounds pretty bad, but there's one question you might ask yourself now:

Doesn't a wheelie represent the best possible weight transfer?

Answer:
Yes, but you forget one of the most important things of GT5 related suspension tuning, the ride height.​

Not realistic, but it is like it is. A wheelie gives you the advantage of the best possible weight distribution, but hurts with changing the ride height to a very unlikely value. At the end we'll "clearly" see that the ride height plays the bigger role than weight transfer.

Ways to set it

How to (in order of importance):

Springs

Ride Height (only front, because the rear would hurt the traction too much)

Dampers

Just remember that I said that hurting ride height isn't really worth better weight transfer.
So the only useful way is to use dampers and sometimes springs, because of this: <It only determines how fast and therefore, in relation with time, how much of the potential is implemented or not> (--> Suspension; Dampers)

The pretty much only setting, in which weight transfer could really help improving, is this:

Probably the most important thing in drag tuning.
Due to the complexity of this topic, we'll split the topic and have a look at separate cases:

Division

High powered FWD/RWD cars

Always wheelspin in first gear
(usually the starting gear if you tune for 3k-10k; other distances like 1/4mile often need a 2nd gear launch).

Sometimes higher gear for good launch needed (only for short distances like 1/4mile).

Low powered FWD/RWD cars

Bogs in first gear (bog= no wheelspin, revs drop and acceleration gets hurt).

First gear can't be set as long as possible, transmission must be stretched.

AWD cars

Comparable with the low powered FWD/RWD cars list above, but with minor differences.

General knowledge

You want to use as many gears as possible. If you fear too much time loss because of shift lag, don't worry! The closer the gears the less shift lag, and because the FC-Transmission is that good (or the bobs), it goes till a point where you can't even notice the shift.

"Wheelspin is your friend!"
You might already have heard this sentence. But what does it exactly mean?
Well, the worst thing which can happen is bogging down. An engine bogs when its power/torque isn't big enough to hold the revs up. If you start, the engine stalls or the revs drop into too low rpm, then the acceleration really gets hurt.
The reason why all the good tuners have such a good launch is not because of avoiding wheelspin, no, it's the opposite. In online free run mode you can't see the smoke when a car starts, which caused and still causes some confusion.

The starting gear should be as long as possible, but without stalling or bogging.
If you can't set first gear long enough, then use the next higher gear. A car should never be hitting the rev limiter in first gear!
Notice that for 3000m almost all cars work with first gear as starting gear, while on the 1/4mile many cars require second gear launch. Sometimes you see 1/4mile tuned cars launching in third gear, but that's more the exception.

For 3000m the last gear (usually sixth gear) should be adjusted for good top end, first gear is mostly less important. This is a critical point, but you should see it when tuning an Enzo as example.

For 1/4mile you often can't set the gears close enough, and because the last 2 gears are that tight, you sometimes don't even rev it out in last gear.
The reason for a 2nd gear launch is, that you can set a transmission with closer gears this way.

Take sure that the cars are never hitting the rev limiter due to too much wheelspin.

How to set it

Explanation of the transmission settings sheet

---INSERT PICTURE WITH EXPLANATION--- in coming

High powered FWD/RWD cars

Final Drive all the way to the right.

"Max. Speed" to the minimum (left).

First Gear as long as possible.

Last gear (usually sixth) as short as possible.

Final Drive to the left for a good real topspeed.
If you can no longer see sixth gear after this step, then go a bit backwards, set the final higher, so that you just can see them.
Then repeat the step above at the end, but notice that the graph doesn't mirror the endresult at this moment (at the end it surely does, but you simply can't see all gears then).

Do a first test! Test if first gear works. If it's too short, then use a higher gear as starting gear!

Second and third gear pretty short, so that there's no shift lag (trial and error).
You rarely get shift lag in the higher gears, but if you do, it's the same principle.

I call the fourth gear the worker, because it's often the tallest gear and (and because) there's usually no lag.
The higher gears should be set tighter and tighter the higher they are.

The graph should look harmonic. It normally looks like a convex curve.

Fine tune final drive for good top end

Race against others to test your tunes and do adjustments if needed.

Low powered FWD/RWD cars

Final Drive all the way to the right (for the beginning).

"Max. Speed" to the minimum (at least at the beginning). *

First Gear as long as possible (temporary).

Last gear (usually sixth) as short as possible.

Final Drive to the left for a good real topspeed.

Do a first test! Test if first gear works. If it's too long, shorten it!
Repeat this until first gear is fine. If you can't set it short enough ---> *

Second and third gear pretty short, so that there's no shift lag (trial and error). If you can't set them short enough ---> *
You rarely get shift lag in the higher gears, but if you do, it's the same principle.

I call the fourth gear the worker, because it's often the tallest gear and (and because) there's usually no lag.
The higher gears should be set tighter and tighter the higher they are.

The graph should look harmonic. It normally looks like a convex curve.

Fine tune final drive for good top end. If this hurts first gear, then you must go the hard way: Readjust the low gears (sometimes even the high gears).

Race against others to test your tunes and do adjustments if needed.

If you want to make your tune even better and don't fear work, then experiment with other "Max. Speed" and especially with other Final Gear numbers.
Just take sure that you always backup your settings.

*
If the range of the single gears isn't big enough, as example when you want to shorten a gear but it already is all the way to the right, then you must do the following:

Write you current setting down. Or simply use the new copy and paste function.

Get a calculator

Do all steps again, but with a higher "Max. Speed".
I normally chose the "Max. Speed" so that I've enough rest in both directions.

Put the previously tested numbers in.

​

AWD cars

Final Drive default (for the beginning).

"Max. Speed" default (for the beginning). *

Final Drive to the left for a good real topspeed.

First Gear for best launch, test, test, test! Read that below ---> *
The difference here is that you don't really want massive wheelspin, a bit is ok, just take sure that the engine doesn't bog or stall.
Repeat this until first gear is fine. If you can't set it short enough ---> *

Second and third gear pretty short, so hat there's no shift lag (trial and error). If you can't set them short or long enough ---> *
You rarely get shift lag in the higher gears, but if you do, it's the same principle.

I call the fourth gear the worker, because it's often the tallest gear and (and because) there's usually no lag.
The higher gears should be set tighter and tighter the higher they are.

The graph should look harmonic. It normally looks like a convex curve.

Fine tune final drive for good top end. If this hurts first gear, then you must go the hard way: Readjust the low gears (sometimes even the high gears).

Race against others to test your tunes and do adjustments if needed.

If you want to make your tune even better and don't fear work, then experiment with other "Max. Speed" and especially with other Final Gear numbers.
Just take sure that you always backup your settings.

I like to set "Max. Speed" so that all gear ratios are in the middle of the available single gear range! This gives you enough room for further changes.

*
If the range of the single gears isn't big enough, as example when you want to shorten a gear but it already is all the way to the right, then you must do the following:

Write you current setting down. Or simply use the new copy and paste function.

Get a calculator when you must change Final Drive.

Do all steps again, but with a higher "Max. Speed".
I normally chose the "Max. Speed" so that I've enough rest in both directions.

Put the previously tested numbers in.

​

Important addition for 1/4mile drag tuning:
If the last gear (or more) isn't used, then save your current tune and redo it for a second gear launcher (rarely third gear).
A tune for second gear launch looks mostly similar, although the final drive, and following also the single gear numbers, is normally different. The reason for a 2nd gear launch is, that you can set a tranny with closer gears this way.

"E-Cheat"
A certain trick, which massively improves acceleration in starting gear through reducing wheelspin without risking to bog or stall. It works well online and is really highly effective.
It doesn't work with FWD cars though and just hardly with AWDs.

The only way to find out if somebody's using it, is to listen carefully. Listen how your opponents car sounds in first gear. If you hear a clear and regular sounding engine, it's fine. But if you clearly hear it stuttering, then he's probably using the trick/cheat.
It's not easy to describe, but if you're interested, send me a PM or join an online lobby I'm in and I'll show you the difference.

Note: Be aware that e-cheating is heavily frowned upon. Better don't use it!

"Ghost Launching"

Brake; if handbrake or normal brakes doesn't matter.

Press "Start"

Full throttle

Press "Start" again when you see the tree going ghost.

It really reduces the reaction time and is a big advantage. But don't wonder if you receive some hate or even get kicked for it.
There's only one situation when it's ok to use it: You're suffering of big ghost lag and the others are fine with it when you use it.
If this is the case, it could also be seen as trick instead of cheat.

It's stupidly easy to find out if somebody's using it, as long as you've working eyes and a brain. Because if you do it, you go ghost, and not just on your screen. Everyone can see it, so ..

"Guess Launching"
You simply guess when the tree will go ghost and randomly start. Sounds stupid, is stupid, and stupidly works too often, sadly.
You might hit it once and maybe a second time, but I guarantee you that the others will find it out; and then you're . The excuse, "My finger slipped off the handbrake! Sorry!", won't work long ..for sure.
Simply don't do it.

"SRF aka Skid Recovery Force"
A driving aid, yes you can prohibit it as host. It is prohibited in every good drag room; to 100%, believe me.
Oh and everybody can easily check what for driving aids the others are using, therefore you won't have success with it online.

The main problem is offline.
Since some cars with wing reach such high g-force numbers, you can simply reduce the downforce and use SRF instead. With some suspension tweaks you'll be able to hit the same g's as without SRF but with wing.
Better don't feel too safe, we'll find it out! People may demand for additional proof and they'll check every single bit. It's well known with which cars this trick is possible, so better don't even bother with it.

Tricks

"Timed Launch"
Does only work in the offline Speed Test mode on SSRX.
It's just a matter of when you go on throttle. Because your engine is bouncing off the rev limiter, it won't be always at the same rpm number when you start. This causes the differences.
It's all about trial and error, but the key for a good leaderboard time.

If you want consistent times, go on throttle when you see the black screen for quick just before a restart.

"Quickshifting"
Your second bogs but you don't really want to set it shorter? Start in first and then immediately shift into second gear.
It's exactly after the short rpm drop when the engine starts to rev up again. The window is small, but if you hit it, it works great.
But be aware that many people hate it if you do it online, because the chance to misshift is quite big. And then it's just a pain to stand there and to wait, just because you can't get it right and must redo it over and over again.

_________________

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it and that it helps!
​

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Powerband/shiftpoint, case studies, etc. will follow! I'm really sorry that it needs that long
As you can see, I'll update it from time to time.

Feedback is appreciated. (For critics, please with at minimum a small explanation, not necessarily your theory/secrets, at least an info why it's or what exactly is wrong)
---A remember:

I just want to mention that this guide does absolutely not mirror my knowledge, experience, tuning methods and tunes to 100%! It's meant to be a guide/help for beginners and some semi-experienced draggers.
If someone really struggles with something, contact me via PM here on GTP or PSN, or send me an e-mail. I guarantee you, I could tell way more than just this, and if I do, then it's definitely always up to date. I sadly don't have the time to frequently keep this updated. But I'll do my best as always.

Finland

PSN:Temetias

Australia,SA

PSN:d24689

I really do agree with what your doing slump it's great for beginners, but on the other hand there won't really be any of that....competion feel anymore, because everybody will know how to tune. And eventually it will become like COD where everybody know's what's going on lol

Finland

PSN:Temetias

I really do agree with what your doing slump it's great for beginners, but on the other hand there won't really be any of that....competion feel anymore, because everybody will know how to tune. And eventually it will become like COD where everybody know's what's going on lol

Click to expand...

I dare to disagree. Only a few drag tuners really follow GTP so this guide won't automatically make everyone a 'pro'. It will, however, help ones who have the ability to use it well. So called 'noobs' won't understand enough to make a great tune but it helps them to create a basic tune. And the more people we have draggin, the more fun it'll be. And more likely we are getting a drag strip...

Premium

California

PSN:ptk14

I dare to disagree. Only a few drag tuners really follow GTP so this guide won't automatically make everyone a 'pro'. It will, however, help ones who have the ability to use it well. So called 'noobs' won't understand enough to make a great tune but it helps them to create a basic tune. And the more people we have draggin, the more fun it'll be. And more likely we are getting a drag strip...

Click to expand...

There isn't anyone new though.. just the same people we see everyday... n00bs will leave and it will only be the same people..